The New Woman International: Representations in Photography and Film

[audio:https://bcrw.barnard.edu/podcasts-bcrw/2011/New-Woman-International.mp3|titles=The New Woman International]

During the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth, a range of iconic female forms emerged to dominate the global pictorial landscape. Female athletes and adventurers, chorine stars, flappers, garçonnes, Modern Girls, neue Frauen, suffragettes, and trampky were all facets of the dazzling and urbane New Woman who came to epitomize modern femininity in photographs and on film. This construct existed as a set of abstract ideals, even as it varied when translated across national contexts and through a range of key historical moments including First Wave feminism, colonialism, the First and Second World Wars, political revolutions, and the rise of modernism. This panel, moderated by art historian Linda Nochlin, examines the nuances of visual representations of this transgressive and border-crossing figure from her inception in the later nineteenth century to her full development in the interwar period and beyond. Panelists include Elizabeth Otto, Clare Rogan, Vanessa Rocco, and Kristine Harris.

Listen using the player above or visit us on iTunes to download and subscribe to BCRW’s podcasts.

More from this event:

The Barnard Center for Research on Women (BCRW) engages our communities through programming, projects, and publications that advance intersectional social justice feminist analyses and generate steps toward social transformation. BCRW is a center for research under the auspices of the AAUP Principles of Academic Freedom and, thus, nothing published on this website reflects the views of Barnard College as an institution.

© 2025 Barnard Center for Research on Women | Milstein Center, 6th Floor | 40 Claremont Avenue | New York, NY 10027